Brickyard 400: Bubba Wallace earns crown-jewel win at Indianapolis, ends 100-race winless streak

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace had one of his best performances as a NASCAR Cup Series driver, ending a 100-race winless streak after winning the crown-jewel Brickyard 400 at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Wallace took the lead on Lap 143 and held on for the rest of the race. Despite a late-race caution for rain, followed by a red flag with four laps remaining and two NASCAR Overtime attempts, the driver of the No. 23 Chumba Casino Toyota held off Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson for his first crown-jewel race win.

“I’m worn out!” Wallace said. “I thought things every which way besides driving a race car during that red flag. So proud of this Chumba Casino Toyota team. The adrenaline rush is crazy! I want to thank all these people behind me, all the men and women of Airspeed for making this possible. Welcome to Victory Lane, Becks (son)! It’s pretty cool. To overcome so much and to put these people in Victory Lane, that’s what it’s all about. These people keep pushing me, believing in me. Man, just so proud. Thank you!”

This was also Wallace’s third career Cup Series win, and first since Sept. 11, 2022, when he won the fall race at Kansas Speedway.

Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Hendrick 1100 Chevrolet was the defending champion of the Brickyard 400. This year’s second-place finish was Larson’s second consecutive top-five finish, after previously finishing outside the top five in the past five races before Dover.

“There’s nothing you can do here (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) to pass, so no, I don’t really think there was anything I could do differently,” Larson said. “I was second gear on the first restart, and honestly, that one worked out a little bit better, but he almost got clear of me down the frontstretch. And then on the second restart, he brought the pace down a little bit slower, so I needed to be first gear. It was kind of the same thing with me last year — he had the preferred lane on the inside and it’s really hard to beat that.”

23XI co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin finished third after starting 39th, due to a wreck in qualifying on Saturday. This was Hamlin’s first points-race victory as an owner since Tyler Reddick’s win at Homestead in 2024.

“A little bit of both,” Hamlin said about his emotions of being a winning car owner and a third-place finisher. “Great day for our Progressive Toyota team. I have to say thank you to everyone at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) for chipping in yesterday, and 23XI (Racing) for wrapping the car. Yesterday, (was) a huge team effort. I’ve never seen so many people come together to get this done. It needed a lot of work, and they gave me something I could contend with. Not a lot I could complain with. Think we set the fastest lap there on the last lap.

“The car is capable, we just needed a little track position. We had to take a little extra fuel on that last stop as we had to ‘pay that fuel tax’ at some point. All we needed is for me to not mess up yesterday and have a little better track position, have more options with the fuel and we would’ve had a winner. But I’m going to be kissing the bricks in street clothes rather than a driver suit.”

Results from the 2025 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are listed below:

NASCAR In-Season Challenge

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs became the inaugural winner of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, earning a $1 million check. The driver of the No. 54 SAIA LTL Freight Toyota finished 21st while Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon settled for 28th.

“It’s great, want to first say, all glory to God, and, $1 million is a lot of money, so I’m going to donate $10,000 to whichever charity Ty Dillon wants to give to,” Gibbs said. “It’s his choice. But we had a fast SAIA Toyota Camry. Didn’t end up where we wanted to in the end. We just lost track position and was out of the way to win the race.

“Had to play it a little but safe but I want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, Ray (Raymond Ramu, executive vice president and chief customer officer, SAIA LTL Freight), Fritz (Fredrick Holzgrefer, president and chief executive officer, SAIA LTL Freight), Dave Gellen (Monster Energy), Tom Norwood (Monster Energy), Mitch Covington (Monster Energy), Rodney (Monster Energy), everyone a part of it. Thank you to TNT and NASCAR for this opportunity. It’s awesome to win it!”

Dillon’s incredible and unexpected journey to the final round of the In-Season Challenge came to an end, but the Kaulig driver gave people an underdog to root for as the lowest-ranked No. 32 seed.

“Disappointing, obviously, but things like that happen and you can’t predict everything,” Dillon said. “That has been what has been so cool about this In-Season Challenge for everybody. I just hate that we didn’t get to give them a run for it there. I don’t think they would say as a team that they had the best day either. I think if all things are equal and we don’t knock the nose off on that restart, we are probably sitting in a pretty good position to put some pressure on him and race him out pretty solid.

“The first half of the race, we were okay, and then we had a bad run there at the end of Stage 1. So, I think we were going to be able to get the car back right and challenge him, but it just didn’t work out that way and it’s disappointing. Something happened where it knocked off all the air duct, and pinched off the air so the motor wouldn’t run down the straightaways. Then, you are just kind of riding for the rest of the day.”

Other Race Facts

With his Brickyard 400 victory, Bubba Wallace clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, marking the first time in his career that he has clinched a playoff spot with a win. The 23XI Racing driver went from the cutline to a postseason berth.

For now, Wallace is the first open car in NASCAR history to lock into the playoffs.

Katherine Legge became the 21st driver in history to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. Legge ultimately finished 17th in the 2025 Brickyard 400 for Live Fast Motorsports, scoring the best finish of her Cup Series career.

Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski put together strong performances for RFK Racing, as the drivers of the Nos. 60 and 6 Fords finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley led 11 laps en route to an 11th-place finish, which was his second-best finish of the 2025 season (10th at Homestead).

GRID RANKING

There were no changes in the NASCAR GRID Rating, as both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson had strong days. Hamlin, Larson and Christopher Bell all either improved or remained in the same spot, while William Byron and Chase Briscoe fell multiple spots in the GRID Ranking.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol on Sunday, Aug. 3. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

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